Dedicated to the Surnames O'Daly, Daly, Daley, Daily, Dailey, Dayley and Dawley, and other forms of O'Dalaigh (pronounced O'Dhaulee).*

"The great old Irish houses, the proud old Irish names,
Like stars upon the midnight, today their lustre gleams,
Gone are the great old houses-the proud old names are low
That shed a glory o'er the land a thousand years ago.

"..... wheresoe'er a scion of those great old houses be,
In the country of his fathers or the land across the sea,
In city, or in hamlet, by the valley, on the hill,
The spirit of his brave old sires is watching o'er him still."

(Clans of Ireland-Sullivan Brothers, 95 Abbey St., Dublin)

"CEAD MILE FAILTE O'DALAIGH"
(A Hundred Thousand Welcomes O'Dalys)

Time makes its changes even in glorious and ancient names. So despair not because your name be now recorded as O'Daly, Daly, Daley, Daily, Dailey, Dayley or Dawley instead of O'Dalaigh. For a legitimate blood right to one of these names marks you as offspring of the "Race of Dalach" of Corca Adaimh.

"Cead Mile Failte," then, you offspring of the "Race of Dalach," as your blood right bids you enter the family assembly. Itís ancient story is your heritage. And let him who may deny this claim, furnish worthy proofs against the age-old traditions and records of the Gael.

From "History of the O'Daly's, The Story of the Ancient Irish Sept, The Race of Dalach of Corca Adaimh" by Edmund Emmett O'Daly (Chicago, 1932).

* Today in Ireland the most common form of the name is "Daly". Here, I will
use the form "O'Dalaigh" in keeping with the Gaelic style of this family name.